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HOW TO KEEP YOUR TEETH CLEAN???? Animals don't eat chocolates nor do they eat junk food like we do and so nither do they get cavities nor do they need dentist(not entirely true, but almost). The fact is ,that tooth decay or CAVITIES as they are popularly known as is the most prevalent disease known to us and even though no vaccine is available to prevent it,we have a good understanding of why this happens. Hence we can greatly reduce its chance of effecting us.Let us first undersand how and why of cavities. HOW CAVITIES ARE FORMED. AND WHAT IS PLAQUE ? When you get up in the morning rub your front teeth from one side to other with your index finger,like you would do if you were to check for dust on a table.You will find that you have a very sticky substance on your finger tips ,what you have is known as PLAQUE( it is a gilatinous mass of bacteria) and is the main cause of both cavities and periodontites the two leading cause of tooth loss. This Plaque is a otherwise invisible film that is continously formed on every tooth all the time . This thin film is primarily formed of bacterias, the bacteria present in this plaque continously eat the food stuff that we eat and produce acid this acid in turn disolves the inorganic frame work of tooth resulting in rougness of the tooth surface and thus providing easy holding place for both food stuff and bacteria, and so once this process starts it becomes a vicious cycle and the initial roughness on the tooth surface becomes deeper and deeper till a cavity is formed CLEANING OF TOOTH: (i.e removal of PLAQUE ) This can be done by two methods : 1. Mechanical cleansing by: a).Toothbrush : LEARN PROPER BRUSHING TECHNIQUE b) Flossing :LEARN PROPER FLOSSING TECHNIQUE c) Use of interdental cleaning aids like interproximal brush. d) Use of high pressure jet of fluid to flush off plaque. e) Scaling (it is a form of professional cleansing done by your dentist ) 2. Chemical cleansing: e.g use of mouthwashes
Though there many factors that contribute to cavity formation like: morphology (shape of tooth),presence of pits and fissures ,position of tooth ,the type of bacterial population present in the mouth, vicocity(stickiness) of saliva, how much fluoride was available when the tooth was forming, ammount of processed carbohydrate available in the diet, frequency of diet,ammount of fiber present in the diet e.t.c. Controling factors that are in our hand like brushing and flossing, use of pit and fissure sealants,use of fluoride, diet can be used in combination to achive maximum caries control. The few basic methods of cavity prevention are: 1.Brushing using proper brushing technique
after every principal meal( at least twice a day i.e once in the
morning and once before retiring to bed).there are a few important
things that one should remember 2.Don't give the bacterias food they
love ,so that they can't produce acids,to do that: 3. There are other steps that can
go along way in reducing the incidences of cavities like: |
